Boys Born in Summer
by Nezuko
Summary: Ninja motherhood, summer pregnancies, going back to work, toilet training, and a stolen frog are all part of the conversation when Genma's mother, eight months pregnant with him, meets two-year-old Raidou and his mother in the park.


**Boys Born in Summer**  
_by Nezuko, Prince of Rats_

_This is a work of derivative fiction based on the manga "Naruto" by Kishimoto Masashi._

Late May rains had given way to June heat, dense and sticky. The air was almost oppressively green, echoing with the mating calls of insects and frogs, heavy with the scents of mud and new growth. Namiashi Manami sat on a park bench in the shade, shielding her eyes as she watched her toddler poke at a puddle with a long stick. Raidou would be two in just a few months, ready to start preschool, and she was glad. As much as she loved her son — and she did, more than life itself — she missed taking missions. Missed her life as a chuunin and the company of other adults. It was time, she told herself, to get back to work. Soon. Maybe in the fall, if Takahiro agreed.

A dark-haired little girl with curiously light eyes came running up the path, waving a pinwheel in the air. How could she run in this heat, Manami wondered. Obviously a ninja's child, to have so much energy when the mercury soared and the air was so humid even lightweight gauze clung like flannel. She looked to be maybe four or five; too young to be alone, and... Yes. There was her mother waddling up the slight hill towards Manami with the wide-stanced gait of a woman close to term. Manami remembered her miserable summer pregnancy with Raidou, and felt pangs of sisterly empathy for this stranger.

The little girl was almost on top of the toddler before she noticed him. She shrieked, stopped short, and veered off towards the swings. Raidou, startled, spun around with his stick in hand, overbalanced himself, and toppled, landing with a surprised grunt that soon turned into wails.

"Yumiko! Stop!" the woman scolded. "Yumiko-chan! Didn't you see the baby?"

"I didn't hurt him," the little girl — Yumiko — shouted back. "He just fell down all by himself."

Manami scooped her son up and soothed him, patting his bottom until he hiccuped and started giggling.

"I'm so sorry about that," the woman said when she drew close. "Is he all right?"

"He's fine. She really didn't knock him down. He just hasn't learned to keep his balance yet." Manami smiled. "Have you, Rai-chan?"

Raidou squealed with delight and waved his stick. "Down!" he said decisively. Manami set him on his feet, and he immediately started toddling after the new arrival.

"No, you stay here, Raidou," Manami told him, pulling him back by the strap of his overalls. He gave her a brief scowl, then resumed happily banging his stick against the edge of the puddle, scattering bright drops of water.

"He looks like a real handful," the newcomer said. "I'm Shiranui Etsuko, and that's my daughter Yumiko. I'm so sorry she — "

"Namiashi Manami. And please don't worry about it," Manami told her. "Raidou's fine." She studied her new companion: Etsuko's maternity clothes were clearly geared towards practicality and maneuverability, with a multitude of pockets and a minimum of embellishment. Above pregnancy-swollen ankles, Etsuko's calves were solid, toned muscle, and the intensity of her chakra presence gave her away as a ninja at least equal in rank to Manami.

"I think perhaps we've met once before, in the mission office," Manami said with a smile. "But it's been a couple of years since I was active duty." She glanced fondly at Raidou, who looked up from his puddle-splashing for a moment with a happy laugh. Manami sat back down, making room on the bench for Etsuko. "When are you due? You should have a seat. Your poor ankles must be killing you."

"July fifteenth, but I have a feeling this one is going to make me wait," Etsuko replied, easing herself down onto the bench with a grateful sigh. "His sister was easy, but this one..." She grimaced and patted her belly. "He's so busy. It's always kick, kick, kick. And I've had morning sickness almost the whole time with him."

"You poor thing. You know it's a boy?"

"It's a boy. I have a Hyuuga midwife, so there's no question. We decided we wanted to know in advance, so we could help prepare Yumi-chan for it." She nodded at her daughter, who was swinging with abandon, long hair streaming behind her.

"Your husband must be pleased," remarked Manami.

"Oh, he says he's happy as long as the baby is healthy. So am I, of course. But I think he's glad he'll have a son. Someone to carry on the family name and all that. We're calling him Genma, after his great-grandfather." She waved a delicate hand in the air. Etsuko was a pretty woman, Manami thought. She had lighter hair than her daughter's, and the same light eyes, though shadowed with fatigue.

Etsuko brushed damp hair back from her forehead and sighed. "This heat is going to be the death of me."

"Raidou was born at the end of August, two years ago," Manami said sympathetically. "It was miserable being pregnant in the middle of summer. Of course I suppose Takahiro and I should have thought about that nine months before, but we were newlyweds, and..." She laughed lightly.

"I don't even have that for an excuse." Etsuko smiled wryly. "But Yuuichi was just back from a mission, and I was about to leave on one last October. And you know how it is..."

"I do," Manami said. "I really do. So you went back to active status after your daughter was born?"

"I stayed out for a year and a half, but then yes. The village needed me, and to be honest, I was starting to get a little bored with diaper duty. So Yumi went into day care and I went back to taking missions. Short-term ones with low risk, but at least I was doing something useful. Yuuichi was really understanding about it all."

"I'm thinking maybe I'll get back on the rolls this fall. I hope. I haven't talked to Takahiro about it yet."

"You haven't talked to your husband about it?"

"Well. A little. I've dropped hints, but he's been busy with missions lately, and chasing after a two year old is so tiring... Sometimes it's all we can do to give each other a goodnight kiss. Forget about conversation."

Etsuko nodded. "I hope he's understanding. It might help if you tell him you want to keep your skills sharp so you can teach your son the craft. Or at least that helped me when I brought it up." She grinned conspiratorially.

Before Manami could answer, Yumiko, who had left the swings and been prodding at some tall grasses bordering the pond, came walking carefully back, holding something in her cupped hands. The stem of her pinwheel was tucked under one arm, with the colorful head bapping against her shoulder with each step.

Raidou, who had lost interest in his puddle, raced over to her, reaching for the pinwheel. Yumiko backed up, struggling to keep both her toy and what was in her hands out of the toddler's reach. "No. It's mine," she told him.

Raidou's face scrunched up in consternation, and he made another grab for her.

"No, baby!" Yumiko scolded. "This is for big girls."

He stood his ground, watching her. When her attention wavered for a moment, he made his move.

In an instant, Yumiko was wailing. "Mom! Mom, the baby took my frog!"

Manami was swiftly on her feet; Etsuko, struggling with her pregnant bulk, took a moment longer.

"He's _eating_ it!"

For a frozen moment, both women stared at the toddler. Raidou stared back, brown eyes wide and solemn. His hands, carefully wrapped around his prize, continued towards his mouth.

"Raidou, no!" Manami barked.

The hands slowed, but didn't stop. His stare intensified.

"It's _mine!"_ Yumiko shouted. "Bad baby! Give it back!" She snatched at Raidou's hands and dropped her pinwheel.

Raidou, evidently already having a ninja's sense of the wisdom of retreat when faced with overwhelming force, stuffed whatever he held into his mouth, turned tail, and _ran._

He got as far as the swing set before Manami caught up to him, swept her fingers into his mouth, and dislodged a small, green, lifeless frog. One leg dangled, bitten nearly through.

Yumiko clutched her mud-smeared pinwheel and sobbed against her mother's knees.

Raidou screamed, enraged, then choked off. Silent seconds ticked by as he grew redder and tenser, inhaling for a mighty outburst. When his wails resumed, a cloud of pebbles lifted around him, intermingled with raw chakra in a halo of dust.

Manami counted ten. Then she folded her fingers into seals, called chakra into her fingertips, and laid a hand on her son's head. The pebbles dropped, his screaming abruptly stopped, then rose again, startled crying this time, instead of the rage-fit of moments before. She dropped the jutsu and picked him up, crooning in his ear.

Etsuko had already sat down again, and produced a small juice box from one of her pockets. Yumiko was tearfully sipping the juice, and sniffling, casting forlorn glances at the dead frog, and baleful ones at Raidou.

"I have two, if he can have apple juice," Etsuko offered.

"It's all right, I brought his bottle," Manami replied. She sat down too, bouncing a not-quite placated Raidou on her knees, and fished in her diaper bag. When she handed him the bottle, Raidou stuck it in his mouth with a sullen pout.

"You're in for a whole new world, if you're having a boy," Manami said. "That frog was hardly the worst thing I've caught him putting in his mouth."

"Probably," Etsuko said with a rueful smile. "Although Yumi-chan here gave us plenty of trouble."

"I never eated a frog," Yumiko said, coming out of her sulk.

"Ate. You never ate a frog," Etsuko corrected. "And you're right, you didn't. But you tried to eat a lizard when you were two."

Yumiko laughed. "I did not, Mommy. That's silly. I didn't eat a lizard."

"Oh, yes you did," Etsuko said. "Silly girl. Your daddy told me all about it. But you're a big girl now. Are you going to go swing?"

"Yes!" She handed her mother her empty juice box and sprinted towards the swings again.

"If only all life's problems were so easily fixed," Manami observed.

"Down!" Raidou said. He looked around worriedly. "Down down down potty!"

"Oh dear," Manami said.

"Toilet training?" asked Etsuko.

Manami nodded. "If he says he has to go..."

"Potty down!" Raidou whimpered, squirming in Manami's arms.

"Right over there," Etsuko laughed, pointing towards the public restroom.

"Yes, thank you!" Manami was already on her feet, carrying Raidou in one arm and her diaper bag over the other. "I hope we'll see you again. Good luck with your new one!"

When they came back, Etsuko and Yumiko had gone, leaving the pinwheel stuck in the park bench, spinning gaily in the withering sun. There was a note with it, written in elegantly spare kanji: _For Raidou from Yumiko. I'm sorry I knocked you down. Don't eat any more frogs._ It was signed with Yumiko's name in childish print, and stamped with Shiranui Etsuko's seal.

When Manami gave it to him, Raidou waved the pinwheel excitedly in the air. "Frog!" he shouted. Manami laughed. "Pinwheel!" she told him. "Frog!" he agreed.

It was shaping up to be a lovely summer.

ooooo

_For Darksideofstorm, who writes a grown-up Raidou to my Genma in Fallen Leaves._


End file.
